The NHTSA Is Close To Completing Safercar.gov Database

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is nearing the completion of a database that would allow the 240 million car and truck owners in the United States to find out if their vehicles have been recalled.

President Barack Obama signed a highway funding bill into law on July 6, 2012 where the safety agency became required to create a new database. The agency announced in September that they are working on the database. The law stated that the database is to be put into place no later than one year after the law was signed.

The database will be available at www.safercar.gov. The database will not be limited to just searching for recalls based on specific makes and model vehicles. You will also be able to input the vehicle identification number (VIN) to find out if the vehicle has been recalled and if it has been fixed.

The NHTSA is asking large volume automakers to submit the VIN numbers to the government for vehicles that have been recalled. These rules involve auto companies that are selling around 25,000 cars per year or motorcycle companies that are selling 5,000 or more.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said that this system can be burdensome and impractical. “The alliance believes such a system is extremely burdensome and impractical, and it would be duplicative of existing systems maintained by manufacturers which already make the same information available to consumers on the manufacturers’ websites,” stated the Alliance.

Honda said that it may cost $40,000 per day to send daily reports to the NHTSA. The NHTSA already has a service where the public can submit VIN numbers and be notified by the agency of new recalls, according to the Detroit News.